Customers continue to request smaller and more functional portable electronic devices, such as broadcast radio receivers, compact disk players, and commercial selective radio receivers such as pagers and two way portable radios. As portable electronic devices have become smaller, a variety of carrying means have developed. These carrying means have included belt mounted carrying cases, which are particularly convenient for larger items that must be readily accessible, such as large portable two way radios, and attachment clips for smaller devices such as pagers. The marketplace continues to demonstrate that, for items such as pagers, with which the user interacts frequently during the day, there is a desire to carry the device conveniently attached to the user's wearing apparel, with the device providing as little bulk as possible so as to avoid interference with chairs, or with people in crowded circumstances, etc.
For the convenience of use expected with these types of portable electronic devices, the energy source must be carried with the device and is typically a stored energy device. Although substantially all portable electronic devices use batteries as their stored energy source, large capacitors are a conceivable viable alternative.
A problem with the stored energy devices in portable electronic devices is that, while the size of the electronics has continued to diminish, the energy storage devices are not shrinking as fast, and therefore they occupy a larger percentage of the volume required. Thus, the incorporation of the storage device within the same housing which contains other major functional portions of the device restricts the flexibility of positioning the other major functional portions, impacting the housing size and the portable electronic device's cost. For example, the relatively large bulk of the battery in a selective call receiver typically dictates that the antenna be placed at the opposite end of the device. This requirement complicates the placement of an alphanumeric display which can increase the cost and size of the device because the display typically has complicated interconnections to the controller portion of such a device.
In addition, the inclusion of the energy storage device within the housing of a portable electronic device makes the design of a housing which will protect the electronics from water difficult to achieve. Typically a device such as a pager can be made water resistant but not submersible because of the need for a battery door.
Thus, what is needed is a means to reduce the bulkiness of portable electronic devices designed for attachment to the user's wearing apparel, while at the same time providing improved water protection for the electronic circuitry.